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UO gets $8M for science, Ducks get $10M for softball

$8M Science library donation from Lorry Lokey, here.

$10M Softball donation from Robert Sanders, here.

AD Rob Mullens and President Gottfredson have rejected calls for a modest tax on athletic donations, or even a requirement that athletics stop charging regular students for the $2.4M athlete-only tutoring at the Jaqua Center jock box, here.

Phil Knight Professor of Business Dennis Howard explains how athletics siphons donations away from academics, here.

Mike Gottfredson’s recent letter to the Senate dismantling faculty oversight of athletics, including new facilities, here.

22 Comments

  1. Anonymous 06/07/2014

    At least the current site can be re-purposed … for women’s beach volleyball.

    • weather 06/07/2014

      in the rain!

  2. Development 06/07/2014

    Rob Mullens will not let Mike Andreasen get near athletics donors, or use their database. Yes, they have a separate database.

    This is *not* the way development works at (most) real universities.

  3. observer 06/07/2014

    This is a great example of the fickle and capricious nature of athletic donorship, yet it will be trumpeted as something spectacular and heralded by the happy Prez and underlings as an example of the pursuit of excellence at U of Nike.

  4. Ann Landers 06/08/2014

    Rather than starting with the questions about priorities, how about just saying “thank you”? Is that too hard for anyone to do?

    • servant 06/08/2014

      Oh yes, “thanks”. Now — about UO priorities and the importance of academic giving …

    • Kit 06/08/2014

      I, for one, am pleased to see some dramatic support for a women’s sport. So thank you.

      But the the news about yet another new sports facility is otherwise depressing. I’m glad that at least the new science library was announced first, with support from Lokey and others. I thank them too–and more, frankly.

    • Abby 06/08/2014

      Agreed. I don’t know about softball, but Lokey’s gift deserves a huge “thank you.” He is not a graduate of UO, and all his gifts have been to the academic side. It is a testament to the amazing relationship that Alan and Lokey had that the science library will be named for Alan.

      Thank you Mr. Lokey.

      • honest Uncle Bernie 06/08/2014

        Agreed. Mr. Lokey has been a great boon to UO, the academic institution.

    • Cluster Headache 06/09/2014

      Thank you sir! May I have another?

  5. Three-Toed Sloth 06/08/2014

    “Cluster Hire proposals not on the high priority list may still be funded through specific philanthropic gifts and we will be working with the Office of Advancement and individual schools and colleges to make sure that those ideas are part of our larger fundraising campaign goals”

  6. honest Uncle Bernie 06/08/2014

    Could it be that the lagging academic giving might have something to do with the multifarious ways that UO’s various constituencies manage to alienate their biggest potential donors?

    • Gott Damn Idiots 06/08/2014

      Such as…?

      • nonny 06/08/2014

        Good question.

      • honest Uncle Bernie 06/09/2014

        oh, I had in mind the refusal of the state to accommodate Phil Knight’s reported (in the mainstream press) desire and readiness to give a large endowment to UO.

        Then there was the whole WRC fiasco quite a while ago. Chalk that up mainly to the faculty and students.

        And then there are rumors I hear of contemporary sources of alienation — e.g. accusations of malfeasance on the part of donors and their facilitators in the UO and UO Foundation.

        • Pollyanna 06/09/2014

          Yes, students and faculty should have embraced Nike’s notorious labor practices in Asia for the sake of the long green. (Come to think of it, why did they bother changing the building name from Grayson to McKenzie?)

    • Southpark 06/10/2014

      I call Shenanigans on the big phil donations that never materialize and have strings the size of well uncle phils vas deferens. Take for instance the stadium. Please tell me Uncle B how much phil money went directly to the Arena? Even you Uncle B could not get a special legislative session to guarantee a tax break that will exist long after you are in the ground?

      What if people just paid their taxes?

      Phil put up a few hundred million a couple of times.

      The citizens and tax payers of Oregon have been paying half a billion a year for over a hundred years (in 2014 dollars )

      Recently the students have been putting in a couple billion a year

      And even the Federal Government kicks in more than the boosters donate to the academic endowment.

      So why should we jump for peanuts on bungee chords, when the people paying the bills are in the classrooms, down the street, up the river, and even in DC?

      Even if Phil does come up with the TWO BILLION DOLLARS, that is less than the students pay in a few years, so why do the donors get to sit on the board and build building.

      OH and by the way. Phil could drop that wad in the glory hole at any moment, and put conditions on it to allow it to be released. But like the Arena funds, its not about selfless donations for one of the institutions that made Oregon, made Nike, and made Phil.
      Shenanigans

      • Southpark 06/10/2014

        In regards to the softball donation, could it be that there needs to be good PR on the women’s side of the ball, and perhaps more money spent in the women’s side of the complex to appear to be equal opportunity?

      • chuck 06/10/2014

        Wow, someone who makes the point that the bills are actually paid by students and taxpayers, and they’re the ones who are getting reamed without the cream.

        Yup, U of O has been around for awhile, but ignore all those generations of taxpayers, who never set foot on the campus, yet, whose payments sustained the place, long before Uncle Phil came rolling out. Ignore all those taxpayers who will never set foot in the Arena, but are still on the hook for the $235 million in public bonds. Their progeny will have no chance to attend the ‘flagship,’ but who cares, it’s all about the O…..

  7. chuck 06/08/2014

    Could it possibly be that potential academic donors find the idea of University of Nike, embraced by JH, isn’t the best use of their money?

  8. One Eyed Pinhead 06/09/2014

    The neglect of co-ed mini-golf is appalling. And the misandristic lack of a pétanque/boggia-ball court at UO just goes to show the chauvinistic attidtude prevailing among the JH admins.

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